When Gourmet magazine closed in 2009, then-editor Ruth Reichl was shocked by the news, right along with the fans who had read the magazine for generations. Knowledge at Wharton recently spoke with Reichl about her new book, My Kitchen Life: 136 Recipes That Changed My Life , which chronicles how cooking helped her to heal from the loss of the job she loved. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge at Wharton: In your 10 years at Gourmet , it was really a time when people were getting more and more interested in food and in being foodies. At the same time, publishing was in a horrible decline. What was it like to be there at that time and to go through both of those things simultaneously? Ruth Reichl: When I got there, they basically said, “We really want you to change the magazine. But we want you to attract younger readers without losing the older readers.” Had I been more experienced about magazines, I would have realized what a ridiculously hard thing that is to do.…